Rimini - Tempio Malatestiano

The area was inhabited by Etruscans until the arrival of the Celts, who
held it from the 6th century BC until their defeat by the Umbri in 283
BC. In 268 BC the Roman Republic founded the colonia of Ariminum. The
end of Roman rule was marked by the destruction caused by invasions and
wars. When the Ostrogoths conquered Rimini in 493, Odoacer, besieged in
Ravenna, had to capitulate. During the Gothic War (535–554), Rimini was
taken and retaken many times. Under Byzantine rule, it was part of the
Exarchate of Ravenna.

In 728, it was taken with many other cities by Liutprand, King of the
Lombards but returned to the Byzantines about 735. Pepin the Short gave
it to the Holy See, but during the wars of the popes and the Italian
cities against the emperors, Rimini sided with the latter.

The Tempio Malatestiano is the unfinished cathedral of Rimini.
Officially named for St. Francis, it takes the popular name from
Sigismondo Pandolfo Malatesta, who commissioned its reconstruction by
the famous Renaissance architect Leon Battista Alberti around 1450.

Two elephants hide in the frieze on the facade of the church. They were carved around 1450 and are already very precise anatomically.